For many the recent clock change will no doubt mark the point in the year where thoughts turn to the rich colours of leaves, frosty mornings and sitting by a warm fireside. Or an efficiently heated radiator, for the more clean air minded amongst you.

So as the celebration of Sutton Nature Conservation Volunteers’ 30th year draws to a close, why not join fellow volunteers for some fresh air and the reward of natural beauty, as we try and cram in a host of conservation activities into the darkening days.

Task days take place every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, as well as on weekend dates throughout the month.

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As mentioned in my previous post on Sutton Common, October 25th was set to be a planting day – and plant we did!
With a great group of volunteers we sunk over 100 new plants into the thick, sticky clay substrate at Sutton Common scrape. We even did some seeding and thistle pulling to round out the day – well done everyone!

All the plants selected for planting at Sutton Common scrape had been chosen for their ability to tolerate dampness, wetness and even periods of drought. As the seasonal pond is filled entirely by rainwater and dries out naturally in the summer, using hardy wetland and pond margin plants is important to ensure they survive year on year.

These plants will provide not only nectar and pollen sources for invertebrates but shelter and food for animals throughout the year. The plants chosen will send up flowers at different times, growing at different heights and densities to help diversify the habitat of the pond, allowing it to be useful to wildlife in as many ways as possible each year.

Here are the species we planted, so you can keep an eye out for them in the future! It’s worth noting though, it may take some time for them to become properly established.

Cuckoo Flower, also known as Lady’s Smock is a beautiful, delicate flower of damp grassy areas – it has my vote (possibly tied with Flowering Rush – see below) for the prettiest plant in the list. Its pale pink to mauve flowers are a herald of springtime, said to coincide with the arrival of the first Cuckoo (although I think you’d be incredibly lucky to see a cuckoo on Sutton Common!)

Cuckoo flower is a main larval food plant of the Orange Tip and Green Veined White butterflies – so with any luck we’ll see an increase in these related species too!

Despite the name, flowering rush is not a ‘true’ rush in the Juncus genus, but one of the two known members of the Butomaceae family. It is a tall and highly attractive plant with umbels of pinky purple flowers on show in June and July. We planted these in the middle of the seasonal pond as they tend to prefer wetter conditions, often growing in shallow water and the margins of ponds, rivers and canals.

I’ve placed the Juncus species in one section here as they are superficially quite similar.

In general, hard rush is harder and darker than soft rush – both of which have single inflorescences, and jointed rush has more flowering heads than both.
Rushes grow in dense grassy stands and offer good shelter for birds and small mammals.

They are also eaten by many species of invertebrate including a number of moths which use them as larval host plants.

Hemp agrimony gets the ‘hemp’ part of it’s common name and the ‘cannabinum’ in the Latin from a passing resemblance to the well known ‘weed’ Cannabis sativa.

The deeply three-lobed, toothed leaves do look somewhat reminiscent of the narcotic plant, but the clusters of pretty pink flowers make Hemp Agrimony an attractive plant in and of itself, offering a food source for butterflies such as Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell from July to September.

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
Purple Loosestrife is a large flowering plant with striking pink to magenta blooms of flowers, which are visited by many types of invertebrates.

In the height of summer (June to August), long tongued species such as the Elephant hawk moth and the Brimstone butterfly can access it’s sweet nectar.

The long green stems are flanked by pointed leaves growing opposite each other, and the flowers grow in large conical arrangements.

Water figwort is a long-flowering plant (June to September) with deep crimson flowers which are pollinated by various bees and the common wasp.

The red stems are noticeably 4-ridged and flanged, and the leaves are toothed. The specific epithet auricularia refers to the ‘ears’ or lobes at the base of most leaves (this may not be observable when the plant is immature) – this is visible on the bottom right leaf in the picture.

While in flower, you might notice Meadowsweet by it’s smell before seeing the actual flowering heads. They are just as pleasant as the aroma, with sprays of tiny, creamy white flowers atop long stems – which are very popular with certain fly species.

Autumn Hawkbit has an orange ‘strap’ marking on the underside of the petals, and short hairs on the stems.

Autumn hawkbit is a very hardy plant that will tolerate wetness, making it ideal for our scrape. The flowering season is (as you might have guessed from the name) similar to that of Devil’s Bit Scabious (above) meaning that even into autumn we should have a good supply of nectar for visiting invertebrates.

And there we go!

All in all, 19 species, and over 100 plants! With the flower gods on our side, the work we did on Wednesday will make Sutton Common Scrape a wildflower haven in coming years, providing the basis for a fully fledged wet meadow ecosystem to thrive! Well done team! Thank you all so much!

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To look at Sutton Common a few years ago you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a fairly standard amenity parkland with relatively little value for wildlife.

Sutton Common in 2008, before any conservation work

If you looked right now you would see a huge amount of churned up mud and wonder what on earth is going on. Incensed by the view of grassland carnage, you would almost certainly descend on me, teeth bared, demanding answers or blood. Fear not, mutinous Sutton-ites, all will become clear in time.

The site we refer to as Sutton Common is the field to the north east of the Sutton Common Recreation Ground, and it hasn’t always been managed for wildlife. Until 2009, when LBS Biodiversity (and the SNCV!) took over management, it was treated much the same as the rest of the park. However, it was deemed too wet to be easily maintained as a sports and recreation site. Wetness is no a bad thing for wildlife habitat, however, so it was decided that the site would be changed to a meadow, for nature conservation purposes.

At this point, the whole site was absolutely dominated by Creeping Bent grass (Agrostis stolonifera).In order to deal with this and diversify the structure of the site, one of the first works undertaken was to create a large ‘scrape’ area to the north.

Scrape creation, 2009.

Scraping (removing a certain amount of topsoil) from this area allowed the waterlogged ground to become more of a feature rather than a hinderance to the site. Standing water in this area now creates a small ephemeral pond in the winter months, and retains some dampness in the summer, creating a ‘wet meadow’ type habitat. This has since been seeded and planted with species relevant to a damp habitat, and is still being managed this way.

Scrape with water, Sept 2015

The ‘pond’ is not permanent, fluctuating with rainfall and normally more or less drying up in the summer.

Ponds like this are referred to as temporary, ephemeral or vernal pools. Due to their lack of fish means amphibians and invertebrates can thrive there without predation, offering a much needed safe haven for many species.

Scrape wet, but not full, Sept 2017

It does, however mean that the plants in the pond have to be hardy enough to survive both in and out of water, with varying degrees of water. A pond without plants is far less useful as the vegetation provides benefits such as food and shelter.
For this reason the pond was seeded with mainly hardy marginal wetland species that can deal with both deluge and drought such as Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi), Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens) and Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis) with some species faring better than others over the years.

Following this work, a lot of time and effort went into attempting to change the botanical make up of the rest of the meadow. Most of the site was overrun creeping bent which was stopping any other grasses or wildflowers (with the exception of a few very hardy bits like clover). To remedy this, the area was overseeded with Hay Rattle (Rhinanthus major), a semi-parasitic plant that keeps grasses such as Creeping Bent at bay by stealing their nutrients. For this reason it is often lauded as great plant for a fast track to a biodiverse meadow. Stimying the grass growth allows more space and nutrient to be freed up for other, less aggressive species like many wildflowers.

Hay Rattle (Rhinanthus Major) at Sutton Common

The introduction of hay rattle on this site only had limited success. Some patches did take, and in these areas it had the desired effect, suppressing grass and increasing potential for wildflower growth. Eventually though, the creeping bent, hell bent (hah!) on domination, stamped out the hay rattle and bar a few isolated patches, returned the burgeoning meadow to a homogenic swathe of grass and clover.

Due to this persistence, it was decided to undergo the current meadow creation work. The first steps of this were to spray the entire area with pesticide to kill off the unwanted species, then rotovate the soil to churn it up, exposing bare soil.
This work has currently been stalled due to the soil’s wetness (maybe the parks team were wise to give up their waterlogged field?) and there is still more rotavating and weed control to be done to create a fine receptive soil. A ‘blank canvas’ into which we can finally seed. The seed mix will be a mixture of less aggressive grasses, and wildflowers which will hopefully help us create what we’ve wanted all along at Sutton Common – a wildflower rich meadow.

As I mentioned, the initial seeding of the pond was more successful for some species than others. In order to help increase the biodiversity of the pond, I’m organising a community planting day when we will plant over a hundred pond margin and wetland plants. (Please come! Details below or on facebook)

Species to be planted on the day include wetland plants such as Gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus), Water Figwort (Scrophularia aquatica) and Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and more meadow-suited plants like Devil’s Bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis), Autumn Hawkbit (Leontodon autumnalis) and Hemp Agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum). By planting these we can create a more diverse pond, and a smooth transition between meadow and pond.

With continued management we will drastically change the botanical makeup of Sutton Common, and improve the habitats therein. With a bit of volunteer elbow grease, the site will develop into the well balanced and beautiful haven for wildlife that was originally envisioned when the park was taken under the Biodiversity Team’s wing in 2009. What a great way to help wildlife on Sutton (Common)’s doorstep!

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I’m pleased to let you all know that Saturday’s Woodland Celebration was a great success! First things first – If you were one of the 200+ people that showed up and partook in the festivities, thank you!

This was a celebration not just of the SNCV’s 30 years of ‘helping wildlife on Sutton’s doorstep’, but also of the amazing work done over the last few years turning Queen Mary’s Woodland into the beautiful space it is today.

It was massively heartening to see such a great turn out from volunteers, old friends, and of course local families interested in the work going on in their neighborhood.
The number of people enjoying the celebration made all the preparation worthwhile and the feedback about the woodland was overwhelmingly positive. Now the major projects have been done, all can agree that the works have had a massively positive effect on the woodland, bringing not just biological diversity but also improving access, allowing more people to enjoy this beautiful area.

A warm welcome!

Throughout the day we raised a total of £257.00 of donations to the SNCV from visitors to our charity stall and the enticing cake stall. Many, many thanks to all who channelled their inner ‘bake off’ and brought some tasty treats. I endeavoured to try a bit of everything and failed miserably less than halfway through. Those of you that have witnessed my propensity for gorging myself know that means there was a lot of cake on show, making for a lot of sticky fingers throughout the day!

Food, glorious food…

The true centerpiece of the day was a beautifully made log-pile birthday cake, with edible leaves, mushrooms and frog! A ceremonial cake cutting was enacted after some touching speeches by Janet and Alex with enough showmanship and panache to put the fanciest carnival parade to shame. (What’s life without a little hyperbolic embellishment?).

Half for me, half for you!

It wasn’t just cake providing the entertainment though. With the sounds of folk musicians filtering through the woodland, the gorgeous melodies being sung and strummed reflected the harmonious nature of the celebration and provided the perfect soundtrack to a sunny early autumn day spent with family, friends and… cake.

Bug catching was the order of the day for many young visitors. Armed with pooters, collection pots and sweeping nets they scoured the woodland, helping entomologist Peter Kirby track down and record over 100 species of insect, worm, arachnid and mollusc through the day, showing how diverse life in this woodland has become.
Peter was great at showcasing these bugs off to children and adults alike, enamoured by the creepy crawlies. Hopefully those who arrived with a dislike for scuttling, slithering or flying beasts have been swayed!

More bugs than you can shake a net at!

Those who were interested in the botany and ecology of the site may have plumped for our own Dave Warburton’s guided walk which proved very popular. Taking in the whole site he gave punters the ‘inside scoop’ on the work we’ve undertaken at the woodland, giving people an appreciation of the whys and hows of these projects, as well as how the woodland fits into the wider picture of green space and nature reserves across the borough.

Look, a tree!

Dotted around the site were a series of signs hanging from trees like baubles, constituting our ‘tree leaf trail’ quiz. The trail pinpointed examples of some of our common and important trees such as Oak, Ash, Hawthorn and Hazel, highlighting the ecological, practical and social uses of them. Included were some ‘fun facts’ – some of which bordered on the morbid end of what can conventionally be considered fun… did you know that Hawthorn blossoms smell of the plague?

Examining the world’s hardest quiz

Probably the most popular activity through the day was the craft stalls, where our visitors flocked to create ‘stickies’ – that’s slightly Blair Witch-esque stick and clay figures with features made using found materials in the woods – and ‘god’s eyes’ – gorgeous patterned dream catcher type things made by lashing sticks together with coloured string. Also on offer was Hapa Zome, the art of smashing the pigment out of leaves and into cloth. Given children’s propensity for hitting things and making a racket, this proved very popular!

Craftwerk

All in all the event was a great success, not just in a monetary sense (although we raised a lot), or even just getting people through the door (and it was very well attended!).

The day felt like a much deserved celebration of Queen Mary’s, and of the SNCV. Often while we are so busy rushing from site to site, helping wildlife on Sutton’s doorstep, it’s easy to forget to give ourselves a pat on the back for work well done.
So a sincere well done, back-pat, hand-shake and glass-clink to everybody that has given their time and effort to the SNCV over the last three decades. The turnout on Saturday and the kind, thankful comments received throughout the day are testament to the fact that our efforts do make a great difference, and aren’t left unnoticed.

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Our 30th Birthday bash is almost upon us, so it’s all go for the volunteers, running around industriously prepping and ferrying things around, getting ready for the party!

And there’s a lot to get ready! With tea and cake, arts and crafts, nature walks, live music, a tree trail quiz and guided walks there will be plenty to see and do on the day: this Saturday, 23rd September, 12 til 4.

We hope to see you there!

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Those of you who avidly follow the Sutton Nature Conservation Volunteers blog, facebook and twitter may be aware that we’re celebrating a big birthday this year. It has been 30 years since the SNCV was first established, championing Sutton’s wildlife and nature areas ever since.

To mark this anniversary we’re having a family fun day of wild art and crafts, live music and themed trails at Queen Mary’s Woodland.
This site has been chosen not only because of it’s accessibility and biodiversity, but because it is emblematic of the SNCV and LBS Biodiversity’s work in recent years. The woodland has been completely transformed in the last few years from a thick, impenetrable mass of Sycamore, Ivy and invasive Cherry Laurel to the diverse range of habitats we see there today, all the while fostering a close relationship with local residents, many of whom have volunteered with us on site. As the restoration phase at the woodland comes to a close, it is a perfect time to come and see the work that SNCV, LBS Biodiversity and the local community have done and enjoy some live music, wild art and a piece of cake!

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Do you have, or know of, any children aged 3 years old or above? Are you already a nervous wreck, seeing the Summer Holidays stretching out in front of you, wondering how are you going to entertain them for more than 6 weeks?!

Never fear, Sutton Ecology Centre has a fun-packed programme of events throughout the summer holidays to reduce your burden, just a little! And we all know that a good dose of fresh air always tires them out!

Will you spot a kingfisher on the Wandle Wildlife Fun Day?

The fun kicks off with a Wandle Wildlife Fun Day on 1st August. There will be a trail of hidden pictures and information about the animals you could find along the River Wandle, as well as a chance to get up-close with some of the creatures that live in and along the River, including dragonfly nymphs, water boatmen and moths. You may even be lucky enough to spot a gorgeous kingfisher!

There’ll be a craft activity and lots of information from the experts to entertain and educate you and the little ones, so why come along and dip your toes in?
This is a drop in activity, so no need to book, just turn up any time between 11am and 2pm.

The cost is £4 per child, 3 years and up.

A bee, being busy!

You’ll need to book onto the Go Wild for Bees day on 8th August to avoid disappointment. Your little ones will learn all about why bees are so busy, through playing fun games, tasting honey and making and decorating a bee hotel to take home (plus we’ll throw some free wild flower seeds in too, so you can promote bees at home)!

Lastly, come and join in with the Flower Fairies Adventure on either the 14th or 15th August. Find the fairies with their flowers, plants and trees, listen to fairy stories on the lawn, make fairy gates and gardens and make your own natural flower fairy or elf to take home. This is also a drop-in activity ,so no need to book, just turn up any time between 11am and 2pm on either day.

Again, only £4 per child, ages 3 and up.

With all of this, plus lots of fun Wildlings Forest School activities such as mallet making and a 3-day camp, you need look no further to make this Summer Holiday a huge success!

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Archives

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Upcoming Events

Wild Story Time: Monkey PuzzleApril 3, 2018 at 10:30 – 12:00Sutton Ecology Centre, Festival Walk, Carshalton SM5 3NY, UKCome and listen to Julia Donaldson’s Monkey Puzzle, and see if you can help Monkeysolve his puzzle and find his mummy. Includes pond dipping to find other babycreatures in the pond. Finish with a craft to take home. Cost: £5.50 per child 3yrs+ Booking essential. Siblings Welcome.To book please visit http://37.188.117.158/suttonecology/

Wild Story Time: Monkey PuzzleApril 3, 2018 at 13:30 – 15:00Sutton Ecology Centre, Festival Walk, Carshalton SM5 3NY, UKCome and listen to Julia Donaldson’s Monkey Puzzle, and see if you can help Monkeysolve his puzzle and find his mummy. Includes pond dipping to find other babycreatures in the pond. Finish with a craft to take home. Cost: £5.50 per child 3yrs + Booking essential. Siblings Welcome.To book please visit http://37.188.117.158/suttonecology/ This event has a Google…

Wildlings Forest School Family Fun & Day Camps April 5, 2018Sutton Ecology Centre, Festival Walk, Carshalton SM5 3NY, UKThursday 5, Friday 6, Wednesday 11, Thursday 12 & Friday 13 April Forest School activities in the woods.Places are limited. Booking must be made in advance.Please email wildlingsforestschool@gmail.com for further information or to book.

Wildlings Forest School Family Fun & Day Camps April 6, 2018Sutton Ecology Centre, Festival Walk, Carshalton SM5 3NY, UKThursday 5, Friday 6, Wednesday 11, Thursday 12 & Friday 13 April Forest School activities in the woods.Places are limited. Booking must be made in advance.Please email wildlingsforestschool@gmail.com for further information or to book.